Candidate said she would celebrate death of Netanyahu
VLABOUR’S GENERAL Election candidate for Coventry South bragged she would “celebrate” the deaths of Tony Blair and Benjamin Netanyahu — and used “white” as a racial slur against Jews.
In another social media post, she wrote of her support for “violent resistance” by Palestinians.
Zarah Sultana, a paid Labour staffer and West Midlands regional campaigner, was selected last week as the official candidate from a shortlist of just two candidates.
The selection of Ms Sultana came amid controversy that national party officials had used emergency “snap election” rules to produce a longlist for the seat, circumventing the local party.
In one message, Ms Sultana took issue with the suggestion it was wrong to “celebrate the death of any person regardless of what they did”.
The former Birmingham University student, who sat on the national executive of Young Labour and the national executive council of the National Union of Students, wrote: “Try and stop me when the likes of Blair, Netanyahu and Bush die.”
Labour’s ruling National Executive Committee (NEC) rubber-stamped her candidacy on Tuesday.
As a staunch supporter of the BDS campaign and as parliamentary officer for MEND, the Muslim advocacy group, the 26-year-old Unite union representative has long made the Palestinian cause a focus of her activism.
In one social media discussion she corrected her initial claim of support for the Palestinian right to “non-violent resistance.” Ms Sultana wrote: “Best believe that was an error and I meant to write ‘violent resistance’.” She then proceeded to use the hashtag #signsofanextremistMuslim in the same post.
Discussing Israel, she wrote: “There will come a time in the near future
Social media posts: Sultana where those [who] lobby for Israel feel the same shame and regret as South African apartheid supporters.”
Jim Cunningham, who retired in September, served as the Coventry South MP for 27 years, since 1992, and returned a majority of almost 8,000 votes in 2017. Labour has never lost the seat since its 1950 creation.
It also emerged Ms Sultana used the word “white” as a negative expression while studying at university. In one Facebook post directed at a Jewish student, Ms Sultana wrote: “I can’t believe this YT thinks she can represent us.”
“YT” is a slang expression for a white person, often used in a pejorative manner by people who wish to stress their own non-white heritage.
In another post, Ms Sultana wrote: “Yay, the white woman didn’t win the Ethnic Minorities Officer Election!”
The 26-year-old’s slurs against white people are unlikely to prove popular with the electorate in Coventry South.
One MP told the on Tuesday: “These comments by the candidate selected to represent Labour in Coventry South are quite frankly shameful.”
On her posts about Israel, Blair and Netanyahu, Ms Sultana commented: “I was shown tweets from a deleted account dating back several years from when I was a student.
“This was written out of frustration rather than any malice. I was a young activist exasperated by endless cycles of global suffering, violence and needless killing resulting from decisions by political leaders… I should not have articulated my anger in the manner I did, for which I apologise.”
On her posts about “white” and “YT” people, Ms Sultana said: “At university, I used insensitive language when trying to articulate the need for a specific campaign for students who experience racism based on the colour of their skin. I should have been more inclusive and I shouldn’t have used the language I did. I am genuinely sorry for having done so.”